Phoenix Sky Harbor - Situation Checking a Firearm

[txcharvel]

Wife and I had the opportunity to visit Scottsdale, AZ. Had a great time. I flew in and took my Taurus TCP 738 .380. Flying out, I get to the counter and let the person know I'm checking a firearm. I get the form, fill it out, she gives me a big piece of tape and I tape my lock box as usual and close my suitcase...then it gets weird.

She calls for a porter, one of the airport guys that carries bags and pushes wheelchairs around, then tells me that he'll carry my bag to the TSA agent. I pick up my suitcase and say "hold on, I don't even know this guy". I then say that I'll carry the bag and follow him. The counter lady tells me that I can't carry the bag once I close it...HUH? I'm still on this side of security. I could just leave if I wanted, this made absolute no sense. I will also add that she yelled out very loudly that I had a firearm in my bag and it needed to go to TSA. I was not happy, but I could tell that she was getting tense and that the crowd had started to back away from me. I handed the bag over and told the guy sorry, no offense.

I followed him to TSA where he handed my bag over to an agent. He open my suitcase and swabbed it all for explosives (which is so stupid, lets swab the suitcase with the gun). I asked him about this process of handing my firearm off to someone I don't know in an unsecured area and he said I was preaching to the choir. He then said it gets even better. After he's done, he'll give it back to the porter who will put it on a cart in the hallway which will sit there until it's full. He said I should complain, he's tried and nobody will listen to him. I waited and watched my suitcase sit on a cart in a public walkway for about five minutes until a porter moved it to secure area.

I travel a lot. I've been through many airports checking a firearm and I've never seen anything like this. Sometimes I carry to TSA, sometimes they just take it at the counter, but never have I been forced to hand my firearm over like this in an unsecured area.

I'll be calling TSA in Phoenix first chance I get.

[PBratton]

Call a news station in Phoenix and tell them about it.

[JALLEN]

You had the bag locked, didn't you? The firearm was in a locked hard sided container, wasn't it?

It used to be in most places I flew into and out of, that the x-Ray machine was right there, you watched your bag go through while you waited if there were any questions. Now they have moved them into the back room, mostly.

I wouldn't be upset about this. For one thing, as you surely realize, you do things the TSA way, no alternatives. If you object, fly without it. There is no other way, and these guys have no sense of humor whatsoever. It is out of your control.

[The Annoyed Man]

I know it is a giant pain, but I don't fly anymore unless it is unavoidable, for exactly these kinds of reasons. Arizona is a 2 day drive, and it is a chance to see some of the country. At least, that's how I see it.

[JALLEN]

Part of the TSA strategy, if you will allow use of that term, is to keep everyone guessing as much as possible about what procedures will be in effect, from airport to airport, from time to time. One time it is this, next time it is that, after that it is something else.

Of course, this risks mistaking strategy for mere blundering. Who knows?

[jimlongley]

Part of the TSA strategy, if you will allow use of that term, is to keep everyone guessing as much as possible about what procedures will be in effect, from airport to airport, from time to time. One time it is this, next time it is that, after that it is something else.

Of course, this risks mistaking strategy for mere blundering. Who knows?

That is not a TSA procedure, it's an airport procedure having nothing to do with TSA.

[jmorris]

Yep. Fly out of San Antonio and it's the same deal with the porter. At least last time I flew.

In Indianapolis the bag immediately goes onto the conveyor at the check in. But! If the TSA scan kicks up something you are called to a security center where you have to give up your keys. The check area is in a location that the public is not allowed in to. Happened both times I flew out of there with my long gun case. You have basically two choices, argue with them until you miss your flight or hand over the keys.

[ELB]

...
She calls for a porter, one of the airport guys that carries bags and pushes wheelchairs around, then tells me that he'll carry my bag to the TSA agent...

I ran into a similar thing at Denver a few years ago, but I forget which airline. When I first got there, I thought I had lucked out because the signs indicated that they wanted the guns-checked-in-baggage to process at the counter where they handled all the outsize luggage, like skis and such. That line had about seven people in it, unlike the regular line which had about 70 in it. I thought "GREAT! It won't take any time at all to check my bag and then I can scoot to the gate! Woohoo!"

But no. It didn't take any time at all to fill out the card and so forth, but at the point where I hand over the bag, she calls over a porter, tells me I can't touch the bag anymore, and the porter leads me way-the-blazes over to the other side and end of the terminal, probably 400 yards, to a TSA area where they take my bag into another room while I stooge around outside. 10 minutes later the bag comes out - don't touch the bag, let the porter do it--- and we slowly trundle back to the same counter, where my bag finally went on the conveyer belt.

Indianapolis is another screwy one. You check your bag at the ticket counter like normal, but the agent gives you a piece of paper you have to give to a TSA supervisor (not just a regular TSA person) on the far side of security, who sits in a little office. Of course you show the paper to ever TSA person, but they all say "show it to the supervisor on the other side." When you finally make it through security, you find the supervisor in the little cubicle office thing, give him or her the paper, and whoever it is calls down stairs where the TSA is examining all the checked bags. If they want to open your bag, then you better have TSA locks or be close by, and if they want to open the gunbox, you have to give your key to a TSA person to run it downstairs. Usually the guy downstairs just gives the all clear, but I recall once when I had to cough up the key. This seems counter to the law and rules as I understand them, but that's what Indy TSA did.

If Donald Trump, along with all the other stuff he's saying, promised to abolish the TSA...

[ELB]

Yep. Fly out of San Antonio and it's the same deal with the porter. At least last time I flew...

I've never had the porter routine in San Antonio, but I've usually flown Southwest out of there. The porter deal may vary with the airline and terminal, I guess.

[JALLEN]

Yep. Fly out of San Antonio and it's the same deal with the porter. At least last time I flew...

I've never had the porter routine in San Antonio, but I've usually flown Southwest out of there. The porter deal may vary with the airline and terminal, I guess.

That's what happened when I flew out of San Antonio in June. It has more to do with the facilities layout than specific airline practices, I believe.

[SewTexas]

I drive. I don't mind the flying, it's the airport I can't stand.

[The Annoyed Man]

I drive. I don't mind the flying, it's the airport I can't stand.

This.